SECTION 1. There is hereby established a task force to assess the Commonwealth's readiness for the CLASS program and the workforce implications thereof.  The executive office of health and human services will convene the task force to include, at a minimum, members of the executive office of health and human services and the executive office of labor and workforce development. Other members of government entities providing management, delivery or funding of direct-care services and employment shall also be included. The task force will report on the following:

(a) Assessment of current direct-care workforce data and recommendations for improvement including:

       (1)A Collection of all available sources of data on the workforce, across all direct care occupations.  This data will include: (1) numbers of direct service workers (full time and part time), (2) stability of workforce (turnover and vacancies), and (3) average compensation of workers (wages and benefits);

       (2)Identification of gaps in data;

       (3)A plan for collecting and analyzing this workforce data on an annual basis;

       (4)Recommendations on how to develop a sustainable, regular reporting system.

(b) Assessment of infrastructure for supporting the efficient provision of long term services and supports and mechanisms for ensuring quality and recommendations for improvement, including:

       (1)An analysis of current and projected workforce capacity, to provide the workforce view of the state’s recently commissioned report on consumers of long-term services and supports, “Long-term Supports in Massachusetts: A Profile of Service Users” ;

    (2)An assessment of the current training and credentialing infrastructure and recommendations for strengthening the current system, including strategies for increasing the professionalism of the workforce;

       (3)An assessment of the quality of support for consumers as employers, supervisors and trainers and recommendations for improvement; 

       (4)An assessment of the adequacy of the existing infrastructure for connecting consumers and workers and recommendations for improvement including the feasibility of expanding the existing PCA referral directory ;

       (5)An analysis of the impact of Community First on workforce issues to ensure that the response to CLASS will address the needs of this state initiative as well.

SECTION 2. The task force will present an initial report to the governor and legislature no later than June 30, 2012.